Misery
by kateomega97
Summary: It's cold, wet and rainy, Alec is exhausted and sore, and he just wants to sleep. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Lucky Magnus is there to take care of him.


**A/N: Post City of Glass. Enjoy!  
**

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"Get up! We just got a call about a nest of Moloch demons down in Brooklyn. Grab your shit and get moving."

Alec groaned and blearily opened his eyes to glare at Jace. Jace just looked at him blankly.

"What the hell are you waiting for? Come on!" The door to Alec's room slammed shut as Jace moved on to wake Isabelle.

Alec rolled out of bed. _It's not that big a deal,_ he thought. _It's not like I was sleeping anyways. _He hadn't slept more than three hours a night for over two weeks now. The excruciating pain in his shoulder had been keeping him up ever since he'd been attacked by a Despadi demon and it had hit him with a full poison gland. It was still healing, albeit slowly, and the pain had yet to fade.

He shuffled around the room to collect his gear, and then stumbled down the stairs and grabbed his bow and quiver. Jace and Isabelle were already waiting for him.

"Get it in gear, sweater boy." Isabelle scowled at him. "I swear, Church moves faster than you sometimes."

Alec opened his mouth in an attempt to reply wittily, scrambled for the words he needed, and ended up simply grunting and grabbing an apple from the fruit basket in the kitchen. The three of them headed out.

It was, of course, pouring rain in a matter of minutes. Because the world wanted to make Alec more miserable today. As they rode the subway to the reported nest location, Alec curled in on himself in an attempt to warm up. He reached for one of the poles and a lightning bolt of pain stabbed into his shoulder. He quickly retracted the arm and focused on keeping his balance and staying warm on the train.

After an hour of searching (in the freezing rain) they finally discovered the nest hidden in a deposit for the trash barges to take off the island. The reek was even worse than normal due to the corpses of several homeless the demons had saved for future meals. Naturally.

_I'll get used to the smell, _Alec thought. _And It should wash out of my favorite sweater._

Neither of those thoughts reassured him.

Jace stumbled into the sleeping area for the demons so quickly that Alec thought it might have been accidental (not that Jace would ever admit it) and the three of them were soon engaged in a skirmish. Alec reached for his bow, nocked an arrow, and began to draw, only to discover that he could only manage three quarters of the draw before the lightning in his shoulder returned. He released the bowstring and clutched at his shoulder, glaring down at his bow.

"ALEC!" Isabelle shouted. "BEHIND YOU!" He turned to find a massive Moloch looming over him, its front paws in the air, ready to slam down and crush him. He grabbed for his stele and stabbed upwards, and the demon, now dead, slumped over him. He struggled to slide the heavy body off of him while Jace and Isabelle continued to fight around him. As he shoved, he heard a demonic shriek, and then a cheer, and suddenly the dead weight was lifted off of him and Jace and Isabelle were scowling down at him.

"Jesus, Alec, what the hell happened? Are you getting slower?" Jace crossed his arms. Alec shrank a little where he sat.

"I didn't know he could get slower. Have you even been training, Alec? I mean, that was lame. You're lucky we're here to save your sorry ass." Isabelle tapped her foot. Alec shrank even more, attempting to disappear into the trash that surrounded him.

_Misery,_ he thought. _That's what this is. I hate everything. _But it really felt numb.

As they stood in the subway station awaiting their train home, Alec gave up trying to stay warm and shivered in his boots. His shudders nearly led him to miss the vibration of his cell phone.

_Magnus _

_7:05 am I'm home __ How've you been?_

Magnus had been on a trip to Alicante for the last week to help construct some more stable portals for transportation between the two worlds. Alec read the text and felt a pinch of warmth spread through his chest. He looked up to where Jace and Isabelle were standing a little ways away, chattering animatedly, and then returned his attention to his phone.

_Magnus _

_7:06 am Can I come over for a bit? _

He slid the phone shut, nearly dropping it with his cold-shocked fingers, and waited for the response. A minute later his phone buzzed again.

_Magnus _

_7:07 am Please do. I missed you._

He slipped out of the station as Jace and Isabelle stepped onto their train, still chattering away, and sprinted off towards Magnus's apartment.

Finally he had reached the building. He reached toward the intercom and pressed the button.

"Hey, it's me."

"Alec, it's open, come on in." Magnus's voice sent a little of the warmth spreading through him again.

He climbed the stairs with an urgency that he had lacked in this morning's battle, and reaching the apartment door, he knocked once, twice-

The door flew open and there was Magnus, in all his glittered glory, holding a fluffy towel and grinning mischievously at Alec.

Alec stood for a moment, taking him in, dumbfounded. Magnus looked at him expectantly.

"Alec?" Magnus raised his eyebrows.

Something in Alec snapped, like a glass rod breaking, and the weight of the last two weeks along with his failure this morning and his utter misery crashed down on him, and he raced forward and hugged Magnus.

"Alec, are you alright? What's wrong? Are you-crying? Are you okay?" And as Alec clung to him, Magnus did a quick pat down to check for injuries. With his face buried in Magnus's shirt he shook his head. Magnus looked down at him and wrapped the towel around Alec, then picked him up and carried him to the couch.

"All right, tell me everything. Now." And Magnus gave Alec such a look that the whole day came spilling out of him.

"I had to get up early today and I haven't been sleeping that much because of my shoulder and then it was raining and cold and then there was a demon nest in a garbage dump and I'm wearing my favorite sweater and now it reeks and I couldn't manage to draw my bow fully and I nearly got myself killed by a demon and then it died on top of me and I couldn't get it off and Jace and Isabelle did all the work and they were so, so angry with me and I'm freezing cold and tired and I screwed up and I'm NOT CRYING."

Magnus curled up next to him and smiled softly. "Of course you're not. Hang on a moment…" and a faraway look in his eye signaled that he was doing magic. "There. The bath is filling right now. Once you get in I'll clean your sweater off and start some of your favorite tea and then you can take a nap."

Alec looked at him sadly. "I won't be able to sleep because of my shoulder."

"What?" Magnus sat up and looked at him. "The one from the Despadi I cleaned out two weeks ago?"

"Yeah, it hasn't fully healed up yet and-"

"It shouldn't have taken this long." Magnus frowned. "Take off your sweater."

"What? But-" Alec shivered a bit as Magnus grabbed the hem of his sweater.

"I just want to look at it. Hold still." And he helped Alec slide the sweater off and then ran his hands over Alec's sore shoulder.

"Mmmmmmm…mhm. Hm. Well." And he took his hands off Alec. Alec shivered again, missing their warmth.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You've still got a little droplet of the Despadi poison embedded in the muscle. It must have coagulated and somehow slipped my notice. I'm so sorry, Alec. I should have seen it." Magnus berated himself.

"No, no, it's fine. Everyone makes mistakes," Alec comforted. "It's not a big deal."

Magnus's brow furrowed even more "But it is. Despadi poison is both physically and mentally corrosive. It's just a small droplet, but it's been slowly eating away at the muscle in your shoulder. It's also been making you feel mentally miserable. If it had been even a little bigger, or If I had let it go for another couple of days, you would have died, in agonizing pain and unable to feel happiness. I'll have to take it out, right now. It's going to hurt, but it'll feel so much better once it's done. I promise." And he looked at Alec with such intensity that all Alec could do was nod.

"Brace yourself."

Alec closed his eyes. He could feel Magnus's magic spilling into him, a foreign warmth that felt as if it was digging through layers of muscle in his shoulder, loosening knots along the way, releasing tension until it reached the spot the pain radiated from, where his neck met his shoulder. As soon as the magic touched the area, another bolt of lightning ran through his body as something reacted, fought the magic. He tensed, but the magic was already pulling it, teasing it out of him. When he opened his eyes again, the magic was gone, and Magnus was holding a tiny bottle filled with a drop of black sludge.

"That was in me?" he whispered incredulously.

Magnus nodded.

They sat silently for a moment.

"Thank you." Alec looked at Magnus.

"The bath is full. Strip down and I'll clean your clothes off. Although," Magnus grinned and inspected the sweater, "I don't see why you should keep this sweater. From what I can see, it was a wreck before you ran through a garbage dump."

"Magnus, don't even think about throwing it away. It's my favorite."

"But why?! It's just black and shapeless and-"

"It's the one I was wearing when I met you."

"Oh."

They smiled at each other.

"Now go take your bath! You smell like a hobo!"

Alec laughed, feeling light and happy for the first time in a long while, but also so, so tired. He left his clothes in a pile on the floor, ready to warm up after a long, miserable day.

Magnus put the tea on.

Magnus magicked the couch first, removing the odor that Alec's messiness had left behind. He then turned his attention to the clothes lying in a pile of the floor. He was about to perform his spell when he heard a buzz.

_Jace_

_8:09 am Running away, Alec? I hope you're training or something, but we have another call. Guess the Mama Moloch was out when we hit the nest. So we killed her babies and now she's mad. Get your shit together and meet us at 52__nd__ and Broadway. _

Magnus frowned, and a fiery rage spread through him. This whole Despadi was not entirely his fault. Those two should have noticed that something was off about his Nephilim.

"Alec, I'm going out for a sec, I'll be right back, promise!" he shouted, pulling on his coat. "Don't fall asleep in the bathtub!"

"Kay.." he heard Alec shout back.

He turned back to the clothes for a second and smiled, finishing the spell. Then, he eyed the sweater and tweaked it a little.

"I've got some Shadowhunter ass to kick."

Jace and Isabelle were well into the fight with the Mama Moloch when Magnus appeared behind them in the alley, coat sweeping and blue sparks ablaze in both his hands.

"DUCK!" he shouted, and when Jace and Isabelle ducked in surprise, he shot the fireballs, one, two, down the demon's roaring gullet. It paused for a moment, and then snapped its mouth shut and exploded outward, showering Jace and Isabelle in demonic gunk but magically missing Magnus. They looked at him in shock.

"Magnus? What are you doing here?" Jace questioned.

Magnus's eyes narrowed and the air around him began to spark. Jace and Isabelle instinctively took a step back. An angry, battle-high warlock was not something anyone wanted to be around.

"Do you even know what your brother has been through?" Magnus hissed. "He would gladly sacrifice his life for either of you and looks up to the both of you as people he strives to be like. He has lost his youngest brother and he would do anything either of you asked of him in a heartbeat, no matter how dangerous or stupid. He cares deeply for both of you and would defend the both of you to his last breath. Are you aware of that? Do you fully appreciate how much he loves the two of you?!"

"Well, duh, I mean, he's my brother, of course I feel the exact – Ow!" Isabelle was cut off by a cobalt flash that zapped her ear and singed a pinch of her hair.

"Oh, really?! Do you? Do the two of you really, really look after him? Do you even notice everything he puts himself through for you? Do you ever keep an eye on him, ask him how he's doing, or if he needs a break?!" Magnus growled.

"Well, yeah-Ah!" Another zap cut off Jace. Magnus took another step towards the two of them, looming menacingly over them.

"Then explain why he showed up on my doorstep a wreck and I had to fish THIS out of his SHOULDER!" Magnus bellowed, flinging a small bottle at them. Jace instinctively reached out and grabbed it.

The pair of Nephilim stared at it in confusion.

"Do you know what that is?" Magnus said in cold fury. "If not, I'll give you a hint. It's been there TWO WEEKS. And NO ONE NOTICED. Because Alec was too busy trying to be tough around you two to know SOMETHING WAS WRONG!"

Isabelle paled. "The Despadi…..but you cleaned it out!"

Magnus's scowl grew. "And that makes this partly my fault. Believe me, I've kicked myself over and over and gone through every possible situation where it would be acceptable to miss something like that. None of them are good enough excuses for how I could let something like this happen to him. What I would like to know is how it managed to go unnoticed for TWO WEEKS. Care to explain?"

"But..but…" Isabelle struggled for words.

"He didn't use his bow today…and he was slow to get up…and he's normally quiet, but he's been quieter lately…and the circles under his eyes…" Jace said softly.

Magnus crossed his arms. "Piecing it together, are we, hunterboy?"

Isabelle looked like she was going to cry. "How close, Magnus? How close did we cut it?"

"Another couple of days and he would have been gone."

Isabelle burst into tears.

Magnus softened and held out his arms. "Shhh. Shh. Come here. I know. I know."

"I can't, Magnus. I can't lose both of them. It would be too much." Isabelle whispered hoarsely.

Jace merely looked deathly pale and swayed a little where he stood.

"Where is he? Can we see him?" he asked.

"He's staying at my place. I'd like it if he stayed there for a couple of days so he can catch up on his sleep and I can keep an eye on him. My apartment has a little less commotion, and I doubt he's gotten more than three or four hours a night for the past two weeks. You're welcome to come and visit him but if he's sleeping you're not to wake him, and if you need anything, call me on my cell phone and I'll come help in his place." He thought for a moment, and then added, "If you want to visit, call me on my cell instead of buzzing in. I'll cancel my appointments and stay home to make sure things stay quiet until he's back to normal. We've pushed him too hard, and now we're pampering him, got it?" He scowled at the two of him, daring them to argue.

They nodded. Isabelle quivered a little, then asked, "How can we help, Magnus?"

He smiled at her. "Isabelle, can you grab some of his favorite clothes and pajamas and bring them over? Anything he might need. Jace, can you run down to that coffee shop on 9th street and bring back a full plateful of those pastries he likes, and maybe see about finding a couple of good books? I'm going to head back and make sure that he hasn't fallen asleep in the bathub."

Isabelle nodded again, then gave him a watery smile and reached out to hug him again. Jace looked on uncomfortably until Magnus looked at him expectantly and asked "What, too good for a hug, Shadowhunter?" and the three of them warmed each other up, closer knowing how they had nearly lost something so important.

Meanwhile, Alec stared at his sweater. Something was….different. What was it? Like an invisible itch, he couldn't tell-ah! There it was! A slight shimmer when he moved it…

It appeared that Magnus had shot a few threads of his sweater through with silver, giving it the slightest glimmer. It was actually kind of nice-looking, though he'd never admit it to Magnus.

It also smelled like the warlock.

Alec put it on happily and curled up for a nap.

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**Review and I'll snuggle delightedly with my dog and have warm fuzzys. I seriously want to know how I'm writing. Thanks!**


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